Stay
by subduedfangirl
Summary: Levi dropped his gaze. "Do you think that would work?" he asked. "That what would work?" Hanji asked. "Staying with someone," Levi said. [Written for Levihan Week 2015. Prompt - Loneliness]


**(A/N: And here's my final oneshot for Levihan Week 2015! Sorry I got this out a bit late; I was out and about with my family on the last day. Thanks to everyone who read my entries for this year; it really means a lot to me! I hope that you guys enjoy this one too!)**

* * *

The hallway floor was cold under her feet, but the biting chill was a good way to stay awake until she made it back to her room. Hanji yawned, reaching out a hand to trail her fingertips along the wall as a guide in the dark. She could smell the alcohol on her own breath. Maybe she'd overdone it a little bit. Hanji stumbled over her own feet, wondering if she should've taken her lamp with her. She shrugged to herself. She knew the way, and she didn't want to advertise her midnight drinking binge to whoever might be up at this hour.

Hanji tallied the number of times her fingers brushed against a wood door, counting down to when she'd reach her room. _Four… Five… Six…_ Hanji yawned again. The alcohol settled around her senses like a thick blanket. She just wanted to get back to sleep. _…And seven._

Hanji pushed against the door, stumbling through it towards the bed. She collapsed onto the mattress, hearing the door slam shut behind her. Hanji reached out and gathered the sheets around her, rolling over until she was in the center of the bed and covered in a blanket cocoon. She didn't bother removing her glasses. The discomfort was minor compared to her need for rest. Hanji sighed, settling into the bed, letting the buzz in her veins lull her to sleep.

That lasted a moment before her eyes opened again.

Something was wrong here.

Her sheets smelled strange. It was a mix of bleach and the pine needles from the trees the Scouts practiced in. And there was something hard under her pillow as well. Hanji sat up, reaching a hand underneath to see what it was. She touched something cool and thin, and she dragged it out from underneath the pillow. It glowed silver underneath the moonlight leaking in through the curtains.

It was a knife.

Why was a knife under her pillow?

"What are you doing, shitty glasses?"

Hanji jumped at the voice, grabbing the knife and whirling around. An armchair rested against the wall opposite from the bed. Someone was sitting in it, staring at her, arms folded. Hanji's head started to pound. She'd thought that drinking might prevent that nightmare from coming again, but now she was staring it in the face—

But then a cloud shifted outside, letting more moonlight through the thin curtains. Hanji recognized that discontented look.

"Levi?" Hanji asked, lowering the knife. "What are you doing in here?"

He unfolded his arms, leading on one side of the armchair. "Look around, four-eyes," Levi said.

Hanji adjusted her glasses, glancing around the room. She spotted a broom in the corner and a tidy desk near the door. "This…isn't my room," Hanji said.

Levi opened his mouth to say something—probably about to tell her off—but he slapped a hand over his mouth and nose a second later. "You stink worse than usual," he said, his voice filtered through the palm of his hand. "Are you _drunk_?"

Hanji leaned against the wall behind the bed, dropping the knife onto the mattress. "A little," she admitted. The shock from a few moments ago had banished the sleepy buzz from her system, but she still felt its inhibiting power on her mind. A question occurred to her a few moments too late. "Why are you sitting over there?" she asked.

"Why are you getting drunk in the middle of the night?" Levi asked back.

Hanji pouted. "I already answered your first question," she said.

An hour ago, Hanji had woken herself up screaming at a nightmare. It was stupid—she'd had worse nightmares, the most brutal among them including the deaths of her friends. But this one made her fear for her life more than when she was a new recruit and a Titan ran at her for the first time. Worse, it was becoming more and more frequent. And she didn't want to talk about it.

Levi lowered his hand from his face. "You're the one who wandered into my room smelling like an entire bar," he said.

"And _you're_ the one who keeps knives in your bed," Hanji said, pointing at it.

"Go back to your own room, shitty glasses," Levi said, standing up from the armchair.

"And why aren't you asleep?" Hanji continued, talking with her hands. "Is this a normal thing for you, sitting awake in the dark by yourself?"

"Not your problem," Levi said, heading for the door.

"That's kinda creepy, Levi," Hanji said.

Levi opened the door. "Just go to sleep at your own place, Hanji," he said.

Hanji stared back at him. Now that the adrenaline from being surprised had worn off, her head started to throb. She was getting a hangover and she hadn't even slept yet. Her room felt like a million miles away.

She made up her mind. "If you're not using your bed, I will," Hanji said, rolling over and pulling the bedsheets up to her chin. She pushed the knife to the edge of the mattress. "You can keep your pointy objects, though."

Hanji heard the door close a second time. A moment later, a hand grabbed the back of her nightshirt and yanked her upright. Hanji was sure that Levi was about to literally throw her out when she came face-to-face with his scowl.

"If you're going to stink up my bed, you're going to tell me the reason why," Levi said.

Hanji swallowed, looking away. "I…had my reasons," she said. She glanced back up. Levi's expression hadn't changed. That wasn't going to be good enough. Hanji bit her lip.

"Sometimes…I wake up and it feels like someone's in my room with me," Hanji started. "Something that wants to kill me." She let out a nervous laugh and ran a hand through her hair. Hanji felt Levi's grip on her collar loosen a little. "Sometimes I can only feel it, but other times it's standing at the foot of my bed," she continued. "I can't /see/ it exactly. It's all dark, but… I can /feel/ it. Staring at me. And that's when I wake up." Hanji didn't mention the screaming. She was already embarrassed enough that she was shaking just from talking about it.

"Tonight, I just—I thought maybe I could do something to stop it," she finished.

Levi let go of her nightshirt and leaned back, sitting across from her on the mattress. He picked up the knife and slipped it back under the pillow, as if that were a normal thing to do. Levi looked back at Hanji.

"So you decided to get drunk," he said. No judgement, just a statement of fact. Hanji nodded.

"When I was little and something would scare me at night, I'd go sleep with my parents," Hanji said. She laughed a little, twisting her hands into the bedsheets. "Can't really do that now as a soldier, huh?"

Then Levi dropped his gaze. "Do you think that would work?" he asked.

"That what would work?" Hanji asked.

"Staying with someone," Levi said. "Do you think that would work better than drinking?"

Hanji tilted her head back against the wall, thinking. "Maybe… I guess if I knew that I wasn't alone, and that there was someone else that's supposed to be—" She snapped her head back up. "Wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Hanji asked.

Levi tugged some of the sheets out of her grip and laid down. "Go to sleep, shitty glasses," he said.

Hanji stared down at him, uncomprehending. Hadn't he wanted her out of his room only a minute ago? "Are you sure?" she asked.

Levi closed his eyes. "Don't make me change my mind," he said.

Still confused, Hanji laid down next to him. She wrapped herself up in the sheets Levi hadn't reclaimed. A cloud passed over the moon again, sending the room back into darkness. The only thing Hanji could hear was Levi's slight breathing next to her. She sighed, relaxing again as she finally fell asleep.

* * *

Hanji woke up to Levi screaming.

She'd heard the term "bone chilling" before, but now Hanji understood that the phrase wasn't an exaggeration. His screams paralyzed her in the moment after she realized where they were coming from. Levi was sitting upright in bed, screaming as if—Hanji wasn't sure she wanted to know what would make Levi scream like that.

"What's wr—" Hanji started, but cut herself off as she ducked under Levi's fist as it swung through the air.

His eyes were wide open and he was breathing hard. He swiped at something in the darkness next to her. Hanji realized that Levi had the knife in his other hand, flipped backwards the way he handled his swords.

"GET OUT," he screamed at the darkness, his voice breaking. "LEAVE US ALONE!"

Hanji went cold with realization. She dropped back down to the mattress as he swung again. "Levi!" Hanji started, "It's not going to hurt you! Wake up!"

Levi screamed again, the knife arcing over Hanji's head. She inched closer to him, moving past his flailing arms and wrapped her arms around his torso. She sat up, putting her head next to his. Hanji could feel his body tense as he fought the invisible enemy and the hammering of his heart.

"It's okay," Hanji said. "Please wake up. It's okay."

Levi thrashed around for another moment and then relaxed. His breathing evened out, and he slumped against Hanji's shoulder. She heard the knife slip off the bed and hit the floor.

"Better?" Hanji asked, patting him on the back.

"Did I hit you?" Levi asked, his voice muffled.

"No," Hanji answered. She picked up the edge of the bedsheet and draped it over Levi's shoulder. "You have a mean right hook, though," she said, resting her cheek on the top of his head. "You could've told me that you were having the same nightmare."

"Wanted to try something else," Levi mumbled against her shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Hanji asked.

"Drinking doesn't help," Levi said. "So I decided that I didn't need to sleep."

Hanji glanced over at the armchair. "And that's why you sit in the dark like a weirdo," she said.

Levi raised his head, scowling at her. "At least I never wandered into someone's room while I was drunk," he said.

Hanji pushed him back, smiling. "But I don't sleep with a knife in my bed," she said.

"Why do you care about that?" Levi asked.

"Just… _why_?" Hanji asked.

"Habit," Levi said. "Sometimes it's not a nightmare."

Hanji didn't know what to say to that. The sheet was slipping off Levi's shoulders. Hanji readjusted it, taking the long end and wrapping it around her as well.

Levi sighed. "This was a stupid idea," he said.

Hanji tucked the end of the sheet between them, thinking. "No, it was an experiment," she said. "And all experiments have some failures during the test runs."

"Why do you always bring up science shit?" Levi asked.

Hanji laughed. "Just how I think, I guess," she said. "And…my test run didn't go too bad."

"Get to the point, shitty glasses, I'm too tired for this," he said.

Hanji leaned her forehead against Levi's. He stiffened for a moment and then relaxed. Maybe what they'd needed was someone there to wake them up.

"Let's just go back to sleep," Hanji said.

"You're sure?" Levi asked.

"Don't make me change my mind," Hanji said with a grin.

Levi frowned and pushed her away. "You still smell," he said.

Hanji fell back onto the pillow. "Good night to you too," she said, smiling.

She heard Levi settle down next to her. Hanji reached out, searching with the tips of her fingers until she found his hand, interlacing her fingers with his. He gripped her hand back and didn't let go. Hanji kept smiling in the dark, not noticing the point where they both drifted off into a dreamless sleep.


End file.
